52: Making cooking accessible without compromising on flavour | Lace Zhang, Author of Around the Dining Table and Three Dishes One Soup

Lace Zhang: “During Chinese New Year, I saw my maternal grandmother, the only one who could cook the Chinese New Year feast for everyone. She was piling the table up with her signature dishes like her ngoh hiong and her kong bak bao. In that room with three or four generations, I took a look around. She was standing there, saying that she was really happy that everyone’s gathered around. I saw that amongst everyone there, no one has learnt how to cook her food from her. No one else really had interest in cooking but I was the only one who enjoyed being in the kitchen, so I started questioning myself: ‘Why am I learning about foods of other culture and not my own?’”

Lace, author of the cookbooks Around the Dining Table and Three Dishes One Soup, shares about how her interest in heritage food began, plus: *Porridge kueh* *The influence of her dad and Aunty Alicia* *Her dad’s pineapple tarts* *Cookbook writing* *Good starting points for beginner cook* *Homemade chicken essence*

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